Thoughts On League Of Legends Season 5 Spring LCS Week 8

Europe Week 8

Remember when I said Europe is at the point where the top teams win matches and teams can beat another team that’s close in standing with them? Well it may not entirely be the case; for this week anyways. Gambit Gaming and SK Gaming came back from IEM Katowice not going through groups. I didn’t think it would affect them considering the trip to Katowice results in less jet lag compared to the NA teams; so they can get right into practice and motivate themselves for the week.

Meet Your Makers got a surprising win against Gambit Gaming which really helps them for the auto relegation spot.

Elements vs H2K I honestly thought could go either way but it looks like Elements come out on top. Elements really needed the win. However, Elements did not get a win against Gambit Gaming.

Unicorns of Love vs Fnatic resulted in Unicorns of Love winning in a really intense game as Fnatic almost downed the Unicorns’ Nexus twice.

North America Week 8

The IEM Katowice teams from NA were Cloud 9 and Team Solo Mid. While Cloud 9 couldn’t get through groups, TSM went on to become the IEM Champs. Cloud 9 definitely needed a win after getting booted so early from Katowice while TSM looked to stay at the top of the table.

Cloud 9 was able to win against Liquid quite convincingly. In fact, they pretty much crushed them. However, Cloud 9 lost to Team 8 in a really close match up that ended up being decided in the last two teamfights.

TSM and CLG had a rematch and it was more decisive as time went by as TSM slowly crept ahead for the control of the game and the win. CLG tried to keep Dyrus down on Lulu, but, after all it’s Lulu, she ults + shields someone, polymorphs someone and her job is basically done. TSM did lose to Gravity due to, for some reason, picking a heavy AD team and Gravity simply building 3 Frozen Hearts.

Team Impulse styled this week vs Winterfox and Coast. I didn’t really like these games too much because it didn’t seem that XiaoWeiXiao was taking the games too seriously.

Winterfox move Altec back to ADC and got Gleeb back as Support. It seems the synergy is all messed up with the change back as they lost both their matches.

Liquid was able to go 1-1 this week but winning against Coast who only has one win all split isn’t that motivational to me. They might need the win though as they were in a slump. Coast is sadly auto relegated.

Interesting Picks

Nautilus support. That is all. It was pretty good I have to say although I think you need to act as an engage your teammates will follow because you are after all, still a support and will die within 15 seconds. Patch 5.5 did brought in tank junglers like Zac, Nunu and Gragas while buffing string tank junglers like Sejuani. Oh and there was Urgot mid played by Gravity’s Keane which destroyed TSM in the late game.

Looking Forward To In Week 9

Europe is in an interesting position. SK Gaming need one more win to secure 1st place which is pretty much guaranteed since they’ll be facing MYM next week. Fnatic and H2K need to win both their matches to attempt a shot at first and they each need one win to at least tie for second place. Oddly enough They both face each other so only one team will have the possibility of both options. Gambit Gaming and Unicorns of Love are pretty much guaranteed a playoff spot. Copenhagen Wolves, Elements and ROCCAT are the final teams that can make a shot for the last spot with the Wolves having a game up on the other two. The wolves do play ROCCAT so if ROCCAT lose, they’re out of contention.

For NA, TSM secures 1st if they go 2-0 which could be hard since they have to face Cloud 9. CLG has to win both games to have a chance at first but they face surging teams Team 8 and Team Impulse so it’ll be hard. 3rd place is hard to say since 5 teams have a chance to get it. However if Liquid drops a game and Team 8 and Gravity each win one, then Liquid has no chance at playoffs. Liquid does have an arguably easier schedule so we’ll have to see.

It should be an interesting week with the possibility of a lot of tie breakers!